Plant profile
The name “Melde” goes back to the floured appearance of the leaves. The plant can be easily recognized on the basis of this characteristic.
- Scientific name: Atriplex patula
- Other names: Spreizende Melde, Spanish salad, whey herb, Maiflitsch
- Genus: Report
- Plant family: Goosefoot family
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- Height: 30 to 100 centimeters.
- Growth: Sparse
- Leaves: Gray-green colored, alternate, diamond-shaped or triangular, mealy hairy.
- Flower: Radiant, only 2 mm in size. The small, almost sessile flowers form spherical partial inflorescences that are arranged in panicles.
- Flowering period: June - October
- Fruit: tiny nuts.
- Location: Prefers nitrogenous soils such as roadsides, fallow land, fields, green spaces.
Special feature: a plant can produce over 3,000 seeds that remain viable in the soil for several years. The report forms two different types of seeds. The brown colored seeds are ready to germinate immediately, while the black seeds do not sprout before two years.
Fight reporting
You don't have to attack the report with the chemical club. Large plants can easily be pulled out of the ground with their roots. You can remove freshly sprouted reports while chopping.
Rediscovered weeds
Melde is now being cultivated in the vegetable garden again. New cultivars with interesting colored leaves set visual accents here. Like common weeds, they can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen.
If you remove Melde, you should therefore not carelessly put the plant on the compost. Leaves, shoots, flower buds, flowers and seeds are edible and far too good to be simply thrown away.
You can add young leaves with their nutty aroma, cut into fine strips, raw as salads, herb butter or herb quark. They can be processed like spinach. The Spanish salad tastes delicious in green smoothies.
Melde used to be used not only in the kitchen, but also as medicinal plants. The active ingredients contained have a diuretic effect. In folk medicine, lung diseases were treated with Maiflitsch.
Tips
Melde reproduces very strongly via seeds. If you want to cultivate Melde, you should therefore cut off the flower heads before the seeds ripen.
